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Friday, February 17, 2012

John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor. He was also a Confederate sympathizer vehement in his denunciation of the Lincoln Administration and outraged by the South's defeat in the American Civil War. He strongly opposed the abolition of slavery in the United States and Lincoln's proposal to extend voting rights to recently emancipated slaves.

Booth and a group of co-conspirators planned to kill Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward in a bid to help the Confederacy's cause. Although Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered four days earlier, Booth believed the war was not yet over because Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's army was still fighting the Union Army. Of the conspirators, only Booth was completely successful in carrying out his respective part of the plot. Seward was wounded but recovered; Lincoln died the next morning from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head.

Following the shooting, Booth fled on horseback to southern Maryland, eventually making his way to a farm in rural northern Virginia 12 days later, where he was tracked down and shot by Boston Corbett, a Union soldier who acted against orders. Eight other conspirators or suspects were tried and convicted, and four were hanged shortly thereafter.

Over the years, various authors have suggested that Booth escaped his pursuers and subsequently died many years later under a pseudonym.

About Me

I am just a person living in a small village… in a small cottage…with a lot of grand ideas. An artist, a poet, an eclectic collector of stuff and nonsense …. a quiet soul with flecks of cynicism and a sense of curiosity about the world around me. One wonder being the unbelievable detail of an antique button. These little works of art were beautiful as well as served a purpose. Worn as jewelry way back when, nowadays when popped is not even worthy to some to lean over and be rescued.